Abstract:

The brain prefrontal control system is critical to successful recovery from substance use disorders, and the prefrontal cortex (PFC) regulates striatal reward-related processes. Substance-dependent individuals exhibit an increased response to drug rewards and decreased response to natural, nondrug rewards. Short-term aerobic exercise can ameliorate craving and inhibitory deficits in methamphetamine users, but the effect of exercise on food reward is unknown. This study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure the effects of moderate- and high-intensity short-term aerobic exercise on prefrontal activity related to food images and recorded the subjective feelings of appetite in methamphetamine-dependent users. In total, 56 men who met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fifth Edition) criteria for methamphetamine dependence, with a mean (SD) body mass index of 24.7 (3.5) kg/m² and age of 30.2 (5.1) years, were randomly assigned to one of two exercise groups: moderate intensity (n = 28; 65%-75% of maximum heart rate) and high intensity (n = 28; 76%-85% of heart rate maximum). Each group also performed a resting control session for 35 min 1 week before or after the exercise, in a counterbalanced order. Mean oxygenated hemoglobin concentration changes in the PFC when viewing visual food cues were assessed by fNIRS, and subjective feelings of appetite were self-rated using visual analog scales after moderate- or high-intensity aerobic exercise and after the resting control session. A continuous-wave NIRS device was used to obtain functional data: eight sources and seven detectors were placed on the scalp covering the PFC, resulting in 20 channels per participant. We found that moderate-intensity aerobic exercise significantly increased both, the activation of the left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) to images of high-calorie food (P = 0.02) and subjective sensations of hunger (F_(1,54) = 7.16, P = 0.01). To our knowledge, this study provides the first evidence that moderate-intensity aerobic exercise increases OFC activity associated with high-calorie food images and stimulates appetite in methamphetamine-dependent individuals. These changes suggest that exercise may reestablish the food reward pathway hijacked by drugs and restore sensitivity to natural rewards. This evidence may contribute to the development of specific exercise programs for populations with methamphetamine dependence.

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Moderate-Intensity Aerobic Exercise Restores Appetite and Prefrontal Brain Activity to Images of Food Among Persons Dependent on Methamphetamine: A Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study

^{Department of Physical Education, Shanghai University of Medicine & Health Sciences, Shanghai, China}

^{Department of Sport Psychology, School of Sport Science, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, China}

Edited by: Yusuf Ozgur Cakmak, University of Otago, New Zealand

Reviewed by: Mei Peng, University of Otago, New Zealand; Edythe D. London, University of California, Los Angeles, United States

*Correspondence: Yu Zhou moc.361@yz19sessylu Chenglin Zhou moc.621@006_nilgnehc

Specialty section: This article was submitted to Health, a section of the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

Edited by: Yusuf Ozgur Cakmak, University of Otago, New Zealand

Reviewed by: Mei Peng, University of Otago, New Zealand; Edythe D. London, University of California, Los Angeles, United States

Received 2019 May 31; Accepted 2019 Oct 25.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Abstract

The brain prefrontal control system is critical to successful recovery from substance use disorders, and the prefrontal cortex (PFC) regulates striatal reward-related processes. Substance-dependent individuals exhibit an increased response to drug rewards and decreased response to natural, nondrug rewards. Short-term aerobic exercise can ameliorate craving and inhibitory deficits in methamphetamine users, but the effect of exercise on food reward is unknown. This study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure the effects of moderate- and high-intensity short-term aerobic exercise on prefrontal activity related to food images and recorded the subjective feelings of appetite in methamphetamine-dependent users. In total, 56 men who met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fifth Edition) criteria for methamphetamine dependence, with a mean (SD) body mass index of 24.7 (3.5) kg/m^{and age of 30.2 (5.1) years, were randomly assigned to one of two exercise groups: moderate intensity (}n = 28; 65%–75% of maximum heart rate) and high intensity (n = 28; 76%–85% of heart rate maximum). Each group also performed a resting control session for 35 min 1 week before or after the exercise, in a counterbalanced order. Mean oxygenated hemoglobin concentration changes in the PFC when viewing visual food cues were assessed by fNIRS, and subjective feelings of appetite were self-rated using visual analog scales after moderate- or high-intensity aerobic exercise and after the resting control session. A continuous-wave NIRS device was used to obtain functional data: eight sources and seven detectors were placed on the scalp covering the PFC, resulting in 20 channels per participant. We found that moderate-intensity aerobic exercise significantly increased both, the activation of the left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) to images of high-calorie food (P = 0.02) and subjective sensations of hunger (F_(1,54) = 7.16, P = 0.01). To our knowledge, this study provides the first evidence that moderate-intensity aerobic exercise increases OFC activity associated with high-calorie food images and stimulates appetite in methamphetamine-dependent individuals. These changes suggest that exercise may reestablish the food reward pathway hijacked by drugs and restore sensitivity to natural rewards. This evidence may contribute to the development of specific exercise programs for populations with methamphetamine dependence.

Keywords: aerobic exercise, food reward, fNIRS, drug dependence, methamphetamine

Abstract

Funding. This work was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China (grant number 17ZDA330) and by the project of Shanghai University of Sport “Overseas Visiting Program” (grant number stfx20190116).

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